High seasonal heat and humidity are almost upon us. While that bodes well for summer crops, it unfortunately brings a damaging downside — accelerating the lifecycles of a multitude of insects and pests.

Mealworms, bran bugs, mites, and weevils are common insect contaminates in harvested crops and adult bugs or their eggs are often harvested with the ingredient. Once the heat arrives, they hatch and immediately begin eating away at any food source they can find. This quickly degrades the nutritional value of the crop and its value as an ingredient drops rapidly.

“Insect infestations,” says Arnie Miller, president of D&D Ingredients LLC, “are one of the biggest challenges facing our customers during the summer.”

Arnie adds that one of the most common calls he receives during hot months relates to insect contamination issues in product stored at other facilities.

Fumigation services

To meet the challenge, D&D offers licensed fumigation services. D&D provides these services for a wide variety of ingredients and storage conditions.

D&D fumigation services can treat material stored in multiple ways, including bags, totes, and bulk material in hopper or pneumatic trailers. This situational flexibility gives D&D the ability to not only save your feed ingredient but also save your bottom line as well.

Heat treatment

D&D also offers custom, all-natural heat treatment services through its unique “hot box,” which is designed to reduce moisture and aerobic plate counts (APC) of unwanted bacteria as well as counts of coliform (rod-like) microorganisms.

Operating at 100-150 F of dry heat, D&D’s proprietary process can standardize material moisture levels in order to meet customer specifications.

The process allows for customization and safe handling. It keeps ingredients in the original package, which ensures product integrity and prevents cross-contamination.

APC and coliform counts are among the several measurements taken to determine a product’s “bio-burden.” Bacteria, such as Salmonella and E. coli, can infect product and make it worthless. By treating it under at a high temperature for a specified amount of time, organism numbers can be reduced to acceptable levels.